Book picks similar to
Somehow, Christmas Will Come by Peggy Blann Phifer
romance
adoption
contemporary
book-fun-review
Christmas in Kailua: A Sweet Military Romance (Kailua Marines Book 6)
Jess Mastorakos - 2021
But I'm willing to let her change my mind.How did I get roped into playing Santa at a toddler's holiday-themed birthday party? Oh, right. Because I'd probably walk through fire for the birthday girl's gorgeous mom if she asked me to.And when she decides to take me around the island to do a bunch of Christmas stuff to cure my Grinch vibes, I can't help but want to play along.Before I know it, the peppermint mochas and festive lights start to go to my head, and I fall for her. Hard.But then her ex comes sniffing around. He’s playing nice, but I’ve got my eye on him. Tess and Sadie are changing everything I know about love, family, and the meaning of Christmas. So if he thinks it’ll be easy to push me out, he’s wrong.Christmas in Kailua is book six in this sweet military romance series and is told from both points of view in the first person. Each book can be read as a standalone but they are fun to read in order!Follow along with six handsome heroes in these interconnected stories about the Marines stationed in Kailua, Hawaii.Kailua MarinesTreasured in Turtle Bay - Roman & MollyPromises at Pyramid Rock - Mac & AnaStranded at the Sandbar - Tyler & KateRomance on the Reef - PJ & MaggieHeartbeats in Honolulu - Hunter & NoraChristmas in Kailua - Logan & Tess
The Last Time We Say Goodbye
Cynthia Hand - 2015
When she had a family that was whole. A boyfriend she loved. Friends who didn't look at her like she might break down at any moment.Now she's just the girl whose brother killed himself. And it feels like that's all she'll ever be.As Lex starts to put her life back together, she tries to block out what happened the night Tyler died. But there's a secret she hasn't told anyone-a text Tyler sent, that could have changed everything.Lex's brother is gone. But Lex is about to discover that a ghost doesn't have to be real to keep you from moving on.
Layoverland
Gabby Noone - 2020
At least, that's what she thinks. On her last day on Earth, she ruined the life of the person she loves most--her little sister, Emmy. So when Bea awakens from a fatal car accident to find herself on an airplane headed for a mysterious destination, she's confused, to say the least. Once on the ground, Bea receives some truly harrowing news: not only is she in purgatory, but she has been chosen to join the Memory Experience team. If she wants another shot at heaven, she'll have to use her master manipulation skills to help 5,000 souls suss out what's keeping them from moving on.There's just one slight problem. Bea's first assigned soul is Caleb, the boy who caused her accident, and the last person Bea would ever want to send to the pearly gates. But as much as Bea would love to see Caleb suffer for dooming her to a seemingly endless future of listening to other people's problems, she can't help but notice that he's kind of cute, and sort of sweet, and that maybe, despite her best efforts, she's totally falling for him. And to make matters worse, he's definitely falling for her. Now, determined to make the most of her time in purgatory, Bea must decide what is truly worth dying for--romance or revenge.
Stupid Cupid
Lisa J. Crane - 2013
Their reason for doing so is building a class booth for a Valentine's Day festival, but Casey finds herself wondering if Blake doesn't want more than just her friendship. Just about the time she allows herself to think there might be a chance for something between them, Blake's sexy ex-fiancee shows up! Has Cupid missed the mark this Valentine's Day?
Relative Love
Amanda Brookfield - 2004
This year, however, outside realities are pressing hard: Pamela and John, married for four decades, know that time is catching up with them. And trouble is brewing in the lives of their four children. Cassie, the cossetted youngest, is in the throes of an affair with a married man; Elizabeth, her awkward older sister, is struggling with a faltering second marriage; Peter, the eldest and designated inheritor of Ashley House, is beginning to meet resistance to such a prospect from his career-orientated wife. Only Charlie, the charming and carefree younger son, and his wife Serena, seem truly content, with nothing to worry about except their adolescent twin girls and the simpler teething troubles of their toddler. Everywhere the scent of change is in the air. Yet, change, when it comes, strikes in the form of a tragedy of the most unforeseeable and devastating kind. The family, so apparently secure, begins to unravel.And secrets, past and present, are exposed, laying bare the fragility of human happiness and the myriad faces of love in an imperfect world.
Hello?
Liza M. Wiemer - 2015
One HELLO can save a life.Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian).
The Boy Who Loved Rain: They say that what you don't know can't hurt you. They're wrong.
Gerard Kelly - 2014
They're wrong.Colom had the perfect childhood, the much-loved only child of a church pastor. Yet he wakes screaming from dreams in which his sister is drowning and he can't save her.Fiona turns to her husband, desperate to help their son. But David will not acknowledge that help is needed--and certainly not help from beyond the church.Then they find the suicide pledge.Fiona, in panic, takes Colom and flees... but when will she acknowledge that the unnamed demons Colom faces might be of her and David's own creation?This beautifully written and searching novel by poet Gerard Kelly explores the toxicity of secrets, the nature of healing, and the ever-present power of rain.
The Healing Summer
Heather B. Moore - 2021
They’d been trapped beneath a collapsed roof for hours, injured and unable to call for help.The morning of their rescue, Orlando Gallo promised he would find her again. But Maggie hasn’t seen or heard from him in over seventy years, and now, widowed and childless, Maggie hopes to leave her estate to Orlando’s descendants. She invites her neighbor, forty-year-old Jo Sampson, to travel with her, and as the two women return to San Francisco to track down Orlando, they form a strong bond of friendship and healing that transcends time and place.
Cowboy Coming Home
Jessie Gussman - 2022
She owes him a summer. The price might be too high for both of them.Armstrong Brant stepped between Glory Baldwin and a charging cow. He ended up with broken ribs and a farm and family he couldn’t care for through the pain.At the prompting of The Sweet Water Piece Makers Quilting Club, Glory volunteers to watch Armstrong’s four children while he recovers. She owed him and it made sense. But she never expected to fall for a man with four boys.Armstrong isn’t comfortable sitting around. And he’s definitely not comfortable watching someone else do his work. But he’s downright surly at the idea of allowing another woman into his life after his ex simply walked away.Still, he doesn’t have much choice since he can’t even change a diaper with his broken ribs.Spending a summer together might convince both of them they could take a chance on each other, but when his ex walks back into his home, he’s faced with a choice: does he walk away from the best thing that’s ever happened to him? Or will he come home to stay?Books in the Coming Home to North Dakota Series:Cowboy Walking Away Cowboy Coming HomeCowboy Finding Love
Love Letters to the Dead
Ava Dellaira - 2014
Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more -- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was -- lovely and amazing and deeply flawed -- can she begin to discover her own path in this stunning debut from Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead.
Heat Wave
Nancy Thayer - 2011
After her husband’s sudden death, Carley Winsted is determined to keep her two daughters in their beloved home on Nantucket. To ease the family’s financial strain, she decides to transform their grand, historic house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships. And her late husband’s former law partner is making Carley confront an array of mixed feelings. Then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways.
Putney Bridge
Helen Ryan - 2015
Her two daughters, from a previous relationship, are now both adult. Jo, ambitious and independent, is pursuing a career as a barrister. Jo’s younger sister is very different. Shelley, just 20, sweet natured, trusting and innocent, still lives at home and works at a local animal clinic. They are a normal, happy family - and then Shelley meets Sam on the street and everything changes. Martha struggles to accept Shelley’s choice of boyfriend as, with increasing anger, she witnesses the erosion of all Shelley’s values under Sam’s influence. When Martha’s efforts to persuade Shelley to give Sam up fail, she decides on a more direct approach. The consequences of her actions are devastating for everyone and change the course of Martha’s life forever. “After I’d gone up to bed that night, leaving Gabe amidst the carnage I had created in the living room, I formulated my plan. But it was pure chance that I met Sam on Putney Bridge some three weeks later and I went ahead with it.”
Every Exquisite Thing
Matthew Quick - 2016
But when a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bubblegum Reaper--a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic--the rebel within Nanette awakens. As the new and outspoken Nanette attempts to insert her true self into the world with wild abandon, she learns that rebellion can sometimes come at a high price...and with devastating consequences.
Words in Deep Blue
Cath Crowley - 2016
The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came. Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can't see her future.Henry's future isn't looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart. As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.
The Girl From Seaforth Sands
Katie Flynn - 2001
Bill and Isobel Logan scratch a living by selling their shrimps around the streets, but Amy, their youngest daughter, hates the smell, about which their neighbour, Paddy Keagan, constantly taunts her.When Isobel dies, Bill marries Suzie Keagan, a good-looking widow but lazy and selfish. The Keagans move in and tension begins to mount ...Amy is desperate to get away. She takes a room-share in the city centre but Liverpool is in turmoil with strikes and riots, and life is hard for young girls. Furthermore, Amy's visits home are spoiled by the presence of the hated Paddy ...A warm and moving story of young people and their loves and jealousies, played out against the hardship and humour of their Liverpool background.